By Gallego                                            H.B. No. 2730
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to authorizing the Attorney General to bring an action to
    1-3  recover damages sustained, either directly, or indirectly, by
    1-4  persons or governmental entities attributable to conduct declared
    1-5  unlawful by the Texas Free Enterprise and Antitrust Act, and matter
    1-6  related thereto.
    1-7        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-8        SECTION 1.  The Texas Free Enterprise and Antitrust Act, Tex.
    1-9  Bus. & Comm. Code Ann.  Sec. 15.21, is amended to add the following
   1-10  subsection to read as follows:
   1-11        (d)  SUITS ON BEHALF OF INDIRECT PURCHASERS.
   1-12        (1)  The Attorney General may bring a civil suit to recover
   1-13  damages on behalf of any person or governmental entity, including
   1-14  the State of Texas and any of its political subdivisions or tax
   1-15  supported institutions, whose business or property has been
   1-16  injured, either directly or indirectly, by any conduct declared
   1-17  unlawful in Subsection (a), (b) or (c) of Section 15.05 of this
   1-18  Act, and, if successful, shall recover any actual damages sustained
   1-19  by such person or governmental entity.
   1-20        (2)  In any action under this section, any defendant shall be
   1-21  entitled to prove as a partial or complete defense to a claim for
   1-22  damages that the illegal overcharge has been passed on to others
   1-23  who are themselves entitled to recover so as to avoid duplication
    2-1  of recovery of damages.
    2-2        (3)  In any case in which claims are asserted by both direct
    2-3  purchasers and the Attorney General on behalf of indirect
    2-4  purchasers, the court shall take all actions necessary to avoid
    2-5  multiplicity of suits and duplication of damages, including the
    2-6  consolidation and/or transfer of and and/or all actions relating to
    2-7  the same injury.
    2-8        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    2-9        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-10  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-11  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-12  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-13  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.